1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to corrosion-proof coatings for piping and the like, and particularly to a recycled crumb rubber coating formed from recycled crumb rubber mixed with an epoxy resin and a hardener.
2. Description of the Related Art
Crumb rubber is a type of rubber material, typically extracted from automotive and truck scrap tires. During the recycling process, steel and fluff is removed, leaving tire rubber with a granular consistency. Continued processing with a granulator and/or cracker mill, often with the aid of cryogenics or mechanical means, reduces the size of the particles further. The particles are sized and classified based on various criteria, such as color (“black only” or “black and white”). The granulate is sized by passing it through a screen. The size is based on the dimension of the screen or on its mesh. Although recycling of scrap tires is highly desirable, the uses of crumb rubber have, thus far, been fairly limited. Crumb rubber is primarily used in artificial turf as cushioning, where it is sometimes referred to as “astro-dirt”. Given the large volume of scrap tires around the world, and the need to conserve natural resources, as well as reducing pollutants, it would be desirable to provide further recycling uses for crumb rubber.
Typical commercially available coating products for piping and the like are either relatively hard, such as conventional epoxies and polyurethanes, or relatively expensive and difficult to apply, such as polysulfide and polyurea. Further, even the flexible, modified epoxies and polyurethanes lose their flexibility quickly as time elapses. It would be desirable to provide a flexible industrial coating for the protection of steel and concrete structures exposed to water and industrial chemicals, and to further provide such a coating which could utilize recycled crumb rubber.
Thus, a recycled crumb rubber coating solving the aforementioned problems is desired.